Dictionary

mare's teat en · NOUN

Meanings

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see mare, teat.
2. A variety of wine grape from the Central Asian oases with distinctively shaped, brownish-purple fruit.
   • “I have not tasted mare's teat wine in more than two years,” he said. “I should be honoured to be your guest. Shall we invite the prefect to join us?” 2010, Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven:
   • I partied at Aksu until they began to tire of me and started asking whether I wouldn't prefer to pay for my mare's teat grape wine. 2009, David Foster, Sons of the Rumour, →ISBN:
   • Incidentally, a famous wine grape brought in from the Silk Road, still being used to make wine in the Northwest, is called mare's teat (perhaps because of its shape); because in Chinese the same word is used for both "teat" and "milk," it is sometimes incorrectly rendered in English as "kumiss grape." 1999, Catharina Y.W. Ang, Keshun Liu, Yao-Wen Huang, Asian Foods: Science and Technology, →ISBN, page 391:
   • They also carried the special mare's teat grapes from the oasis of Khocho (packed in ice in lead containers) and sold luxury goods from the west to the Chinese: Sassanian silverware from Persia which had a huge influence on Chinese silverwork, glass vessels and beads from Syria and Babylon, amber from the Baltic, Mediterranean coral, brass for Buddhist images, and purple woollen cloth from Rome. 2004, Frances Wood, The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, →ISBN, page 67:
   • 'Excellent!' he exclaimed. 'The finest sweet wine, made from the best mare's teat grapes in Kocho - a valued ally in these troubled times.' 2011, Peter Ward, Dragon Horse, →ISBN, page 51:

Forms